Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-12-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Sermon Peculiarly Adapted 10
the Holiday Season.

0ecroations Which May DO INDUCED In
and Those Which Should bo Es.
chewod ~ Being Peruicious
In Their Tendencies.
"Recreations, Good and Bad" was the
subject Of a recent discourse BY Raw. T.
Dewitt Talmase at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle. The following were his texts:
They that use this world, as not abusing it.
L Corinthians, vii, 81.
And it came pass, when their hearts wero
merry, that they said. Call for Samson that
he may make US sport. And they called for
Samson out OF the prison house: and he made
them sport-Judges xvi, rs.
DR.. Talmage said: We are entering the
gayest season of the year. The winter
opens before US the gates OF thousand
amusements, some Of them good and some
bad. One of my texts will show you that
amusements may be destructive, my other
text will show you that amusements may
be under the divine blessing and direction.
There were 3.006 people assembled in the
Temple Of Dagon. They had come to
make sport of eyeless Samson. They were
all ready for the entertainment. They
began to clap and pound, impatient for
the amusement to begin, and they cried:
Fetch him out; fetch him out ~ Yondsr
see the blind old giant coming, led by the
hand of child into the very midst of the
temple. At his first appearance there goes
up shout of laughter and derision. The
blind old giant pretends he is tired. and
wants to rest himself against the pillars
of the house; so he says to tho lad who
leads him: "Show me where the main
pillars are" The lad does so. Then the
strong man puts his right hand on one
pillar and his left hand on another pillar,
and, with the mightiest push that mortal
ever made, throws himself forward until
the whole house comes down in thunder.
Gus crash, grinding the audience like
grapes in a wine-press. "And so it came
to pass, when ir hearts were merry,
that they said: Call for Samson, that he
may make US SPORT And they called for
Samson out of the prison house, and he
made them sport"
In other words: There are amusements
that are destructive, and bring down dis
aster and death upon the heads of those
who practice them. While they laugh
and cheer, they die. The three thousand
VIM POI iSAOu tuoO Jay All 0uLo dA0 dS
nothing when compared to the tens of
thousands who have been destroyed by
sinful amusements.
But the other text have read implies
that there is a lawful use of the world as
we'll as an unlawful abuse of it, and the
difference between tie man Christian and
the man unchristian is that in the former
case the man masters the world while in
the latter case the world masters him
For whom did God make this grand aud
beautiful world? For whom this wonder
full expenditure of color, this gracefulnsss
of line, this mosaic Of the ground, this
fresco of the sky, this glowing fruitage of
orchard and vineyard. this full orchestra
of the tempest, in which the tree branches
flute, and the wind trumpet, and the
drum, and all the splendors of
earth and sky come c'ashing their Gym.
balls? For whom did God spring the
nrched bridge of colors resting upon but
tresses of broken storm-cloud? For whom
did He gather the upholstery of fire
around the window OF the setting sun?
For all men; but more especially for His
own dear children.
If you build a large mansion and spread
a great feast after it to celebrate the com.
pletetion of the structure, do you allow
strangers to come in and occupy the
place while you thrust your own children
in the itchen or the barn or the fields?
Oh, no. You say: II am very glad to see
strangers in my mansion, but my own
sons and daughters shalt have the first
right there" Now, God has built this
grand mansion of a world, and he has
spread a glorious feast in it; and while
those who are strangers to His grace may
come in, think that God especially in.
tends to give the advantage to His own
those who are the sons and
daughters of the Lord Almighty, those
who through grace can look up and say,
"Abba, Father" You can not make
me believe that God gives more
advantages to the world than he gives to
the church bought by his own blood. II,
therefore, people of the world have looked
with dolorous sympathy upon these who
make profession of religion, and have said:
''ThOse new converts are going down
into privation and into hardship. Why
did not they tarry little longer in the
world, and have some of its enjoyments.
and amusements, and recreationsw l
say TO such men of the world: "You are
greatly mistaken" and before I get
through ! will show that those people who
stay out of the kingdom of God have the
hardships and seif-denials. while those
who come in have the joys and the satis-
factions.
This morning, in the name of the King of
Heaven and Earth, / serve q writ of eject
ment upon all the sinful and polluted who
have squatted on the domain of earthly
pleasure as though it belonged to them,
while I claim. in behalf of the good. and
The pure, and the true, the eternal inher-
itance which God has given them.
Hitherto Christian philanthropists, cler-
ical and lay, have busted themselves
chiefly in denouncing sinful recreations, but
feel we have norisht to stand before men
and women in whOss hearts there is de.
sire for recreation amounting to positive
denouncing this and that
and the other thing. when we do
not propose to give them some-
thing better. God helping m, this morn
ing, and with reference to my last ac-
count, l shall enter upon a sphere not
usual in sermonizing, but subj set which
I think ought to be presented at this
time. l propose now to lay before you
some of the recreations which are not
only innocent, but positively helpful and
In the first place, commend, among
indoor recreations, music, vocal and in
strumental. Among the first things
created was the bird, 50 that tho earth
might have Emusic at the start. This
world, which began with SO Sweet a sere-
made. is finally to be demol he'd amidst
The ringing blast of ths archangel's
trumpet, SO that as there wa music at the
start, there shall be music at the close.
While this heavenly art has often been
dragged into the uses Of superstition and
we all know it may be the